Taking forward prime minister Modi’s ‘Make-in-India’ programme, General Motors India (GMI) is expanding its Indian manufacturing footprint for exporting overseas. The carmaker has begun vehicle exports to Chile. The first 140 left-hand-drive Chevrolet Beats hatchbacks were shipped from the Mumbai Port Trust in Maharashtra on September 25. They are expected to reach Chile in the next few weeks.

“The first shipment of Chevrolet Beats demonstrates our commitment to make our India-built products available in global markets,” said GM India, president and managing director Arvind Saxena. “We will continue to ship models to Chile on a monthly basis.”

The Beat is produced at the carmaker’s manufacturing facility in Talegaon, Maharashtra. Powered by petrol and diesel engines, the Beat is positioned as a fuel-efficient hatchback and is GM India’s best-selling model. The city car is also built and sold in many other markets around the world.

Saxena said, “We expect to identify additional export markets going forward. This will help drive capacity utilisation at our Talegaon plant.”

During GM CEO Mary Barra’s recent trip to India two weeks ago, she participated in the rollout of the first Beat for export on September 10. The Talegaon manufacturing facility has an annual production capacity of 170,000 vehicles and 160,000 engines.

The Chevrolet portfolio in India includes the Cghevrolet Spark, Beat, Sail hatchbacks, Sail sedan, Cruze, Tavera, Chevrolet Enjoy and the Captiva.

GM India has in the first five months of the current fiscal (April-August 2014) sold a total of 24,284 cars, down 33 percent year on year.